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About The IGF

IndieGames.com is presented by the UBM TechWeb Game Network, which runs the Independent Games Festival & Summit every year at Game Developers Conference. The company (producer of the Game Developers Conference series, Gamasutra.com and Game Developer magazine) established the Independent Games Festival in 1998 to encourage innovation in game development and to recognize the best independent game developers.

In these freshly announced talks, Ustwo's Ken Wong will speak about the design of Monument Valley, while Vlambeer co-founder Rami Ismail (Ridiculous Fishing) will offer advice on how developers can better pitch their games to the press and their intended audience.

The event will include topics spanning AAA through mobile gaming and indie, both technical and business-focused. Today's announced talks cover both the design and the business of games, and they should include learnings for the entire community.

Firstly, Monument Valley lead designer Ken Wong will bridge GDC Europe's Design and Visual Arts tracks with a talk about how the art of M.C. Escher and the experience of being embedded in a UX studio led London-based Ustwo Games to design their first mobile game as a series of soothing puzzles in which every screen was intended to stand alone as a piece of art.

In 'Designing Monument Valley: Less Game, More Experience', Wong plans to discuss how rethinking games as user experiences inspired the team to trade challenging puzzles for an aesthetic journey, and why keeping that journey short but sublime helps to make a game more accessible to new audiences. By questioning existing game tropes and looking outside of game culture for inspiration, Wong believes we can design more creative, more diverse and more accessible game experiences.

Turning to the business side of things, Rami Ismail will be returning to GDC Europe this year to give a talk on perfecting the art of the game pitch as part of the Business, Marketing and Management track.

Ismail, who co-founded the Dutch indie studio Vlambeer, will draw from his experiences marketing hit Vlambeer games like Ridiculous Fishing, Luftrausers and Super Crate Box to offer attendees tips on crafting the perfect pitch and getting their games noticed by the press, by their target audiences and by the community at large.

Of course, these are just two of the many exciting sessions that will be announced for GDC Europe 2014 in the coming weeks, and early birds can register for GDC Europe 2014 by July 16 to save 200 euros on an All Access Pass.

In addition, this year marks the GDC Europe debut of the Student Pass, a more affordable alternative to the All Access Pass created specifically for qualified students interested in learning and networking at GDC Europe 2014 - as well as the return of the Indie Games Summit pass. All GDC Europe passes also allow visitors to attend Gamescom from Wednesday to Friday. For more information, please visit the GDC Europe website.